Teething Vietnam is not 'just like China'
'Just like China' is a constant refrain around the region as Vietnam endures the teething troubles of its emergence as a modern Communist Party-ruled capitalist state. Ho Chi Minh City's fledgling stock and property markets collapse after a casino-like run and, of course, it is a case of 'just like China'. Vietnam's state-owned enterprises are blamed for soaring inflation amid a blizzard of poor investment and easy capital and again it is 'just like China'.
Whether it is the aspirations of an urban middle class or the struggle for internal party reforms, the phrase is never far away.
Yet, at best, it only tells part of the story. At worst, such thinking dangerously obscures important trends and differences of interest to anyone intrigued by the future of East Asia.
It is certainly a phrase you learn to use sparingly on the streets of a proudly independent Hanoi.
Many Vietnamese - whether they are staunch apparatchiks or young urbanites - look longingly at China's stellar development and acknowledge the similarities yet insist on doing things their own way. Of course, the two nations are bound by considerable cultural and political connections, a reflection of history both ancient and modern.
Dominated by China for the first millennium AD, Vietnam remained a tributary state for centuries. While Vietnam adopted many cultural influences, from Confucianism to the Lunar New Year, it is that struggle for independence that in part defines the Vietnamese identity - a fierce desire discovered too late by the French and US militaries.
After independence, the communist leaders of both countries formed a fraternal relationship of considerable complexity and suspicion. Hanoi flirted with Maoist-style land reforms in the early 1950s, but swiftly backed away from such excesses, later falling within Moscow's sphere of influence. Tensions resulted in a brief but bloody border conflict in late 1978. Its ideological struggles subsumed by warfare, Vietnam never endured a Cultural Revolution or a Great Leap Forward.